Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Fourth Estate

You like to claim you are dependable purveyors of truth and objectivity.  You often use specious ethics, yet claim the moral high ground insisting that without you, the Truth would never see the light of day.  You spew words like Freedom of the Press to impress upon us the importance of your existence.

Bullshit.

No, make that double Bull Shit and a side crock of shit to go with it.

Okay, so I guess I have established my view of any organization that claims to be part of the Fourth Estate, what we now days call the "News Media."

Of all the news organizations out there I used to depend on for at least some semblance of objectivity, I am now reduced to two.  And one of them I am becoming very suspicious of.

It really does not matter which two they are.  What matters is I have lost respect for all the rest.  The larger the news organization, the less I trust them.  News media today has become no better than the rags we all see cluttering the racks at check out counters everywhere.  I am at a point where I have more respect for the those rags than the holier than thou fair and balanced lean forward losers who twist the news to satisfy agendas hidden safely away in high rise corporate board rooms.

Deliver us please from your unsubstantiated he said she said's.  Stop using parsed quotes to bolster outrageous claims and ferchrisakes, stop snookering us into believing they are guilty just because their name came up.   When turmoil is rampant, instead of stirring up our fears, maybe just report the news and let us create our own fear.  Or not.

You assholes should be ashamed of yourselves.  And yes, there is a pecking order in worst of the worst, with Fox News setting the new lower standard most of the others are now trying to capture for themselves.  When ratings and money are more important than honoring your supposed oaths as news people, then you have become nothing but another kind of entertainment like the Housewives of New Jersey.

Later ......................................


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I subscribed to the idea not to get any information from TV or Radio many years ago. TV news is nothing more than entertainment short segments. Radio news is usually very far from facts.

If Fox got rid of tv personalities that lied while giving news, it would be a blank screen.

The Blog Fodder said...

Tanya watches both Russian and Ukrainian TV News. Two days ago, the city of Kramatorsk was attacked by heavy rockets from a distance of 50 km. Ukraine does not have such rockets and they were fired from Horliivka which is held by Russian separatists. Ukrainian News reported what happened. Russian News reported it as further proof that Ukrainians were committing genocide on "Russian-speaking" peoples in eastern Ukraine. Isn't it fun?

MRMacrum said...

amidnightrider - Unfortunately cutting out all news feeds only isolates us. We absolutely should pay attention to the lies, if only to identify them as such.

Blog Fodder - Why would the new Russia change a pattern that had been so successful for many years? They do not care what the World thinks, all that matters is keep controlling the news on the home front.

Nan said...

On the positive side, the news media are better now than they were in the 19th century. Of course, that's not saying much.

Tom Harper said...

I agree that the intelligence-insulting tabloids at checkout counters are less contemptible than most "news" organizations. The tabloids at least are not pretending to be anything other than what they are.

Ol'Buzzard said...

Almost all news outlets and major news papers are are owned by one of six people.
the Ol'Buzzard

BBC said...

The news from any sites or fishwraps has always required a good bullshit filter.

It often bugs me that they think they are supposed to analyze it for us so we think about it the way they want us to.

MRMacrum said...

Nan - I dunno about worse. Different maybe. Not as blatant I guess.

Tom Harper - Absolutely. If you are printing or reporting opinion as fact then you are the worst kind of journalist. Seems we have to harder now days for the best lind.

Ol'Buzzard - Control the message, control the people

BBC - I don't use my bull shit filter anymore. I have pulled out my bullshit blocker. And it only works occasionally.